On behalf of more than 20 wood processing companies from Rožaje and Berane, attorney Nušo Kalač submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, requesting an assessment of the constitutionality and legality of the public call of the Forest and Hunting Management Administration for the allocation of forests for use by selling standing timber for 2025, published on October 22.
This department is headed by the acting director. Miloš Rajković.
They also requested the Constitutional Court to issue a temporary measure to suspend the sale process until a final decision is made on the constitutionality and legality of the public invitation.
The initiative states that the provisions of the public call, according to which the right to compete is based on the number of employees in wood processing companies, represent a violation of fundamental constitutional rights, primarily the right to equality and the prohibition of discrimination, the right to work and freedom of entrepreneurship, as well as the right to a free market and competition.
"The categorization of entrepreneurs - wood processing companies, based on the number of employees (less than 10, from 10 to 40, more than 40), creates discrimination between smaller and larger companies, preventing small wood processors from having equal access to the market, which violates the right to equality and freedom of competition... The criteria set in the public call favor larger companies, while medium-sized and small companies with less than 10 and 10 to 40 employees are unable to compete for certain resources, which violates their right to work and the right to business freedom," the initiative states.
Wood processors believe that the conditions of the invitation to tender seriously distort competition, favoring larger companies and preventing medium-sized and small businesses from competing on equal terms, which, they claim, threatens the free market and economic competition.
They assess that "continuing the implementation of the public call, which favors larger entrepreneurs, could cause serious and difficult to recover material damage to medium and small wood processors, the initiator."
The disputed public call for tenders has put state-owned forests for use by selling timber in a standing state, in accordance with the implementation projects in the regional units of Pljevlja, Rožaje, Berane, Žabljak, Kolašin, Plužine, Bijelo Polje, Andrijevica, Podgorica, Danilovgrad, Nikšić and Petnjica. There are a total of 208 departments in the area of these municipalities, to which a total of more than 325.000 "cubic meters" of hardwood and coniferous wood mass should be allocated.
Bidders may only participate in departments that do not exceed a maximum volume of raw material of up to 450 cubic meters per average number of employees.
In the public call, departments are marked with symbols from one to three stars. One star indicates departments in which legal entities with a maximum of 10 average employees can participate, according to data from the Tax Administration. Two stars refer to departments in which legal entities with 10,01 to 40 average employees can apply, and three stars refer to departments in which legal entities with more than 40,01 average employees can participate.
Bidders can only participate in sections that do not exceed their maximum quota of 450 m³ of raw material. The tender rules also emphasize that each bidder can submit only one bid per section, while joint bids from multiple bidders will be rejected by the Commission.
"The criteria set out in the public call favor larger companies, while medium-sized and small companies with fewer than 10 and 10 to 40 employees are unable to compete for certain resources, which violates their right to work and the right to business freedom," the initiative states.
The wood processors also requested the Constitutional Court to issue a temporary measure to suspend the sales process until a final decision is made on the constitutionality and legality of the public invitation.
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